A search and rescue operation was launched after the woman’s friends called emergency services about 1.30pm yesterday.
She got into trouble while swimming near the riverbank at a Department of Conservation reserve at the end of Rafters Rd.
Sergeant Matt Hargreaves, of Queenstown, said the woman managed to get herself out of the water and on to rocks after being swept several hundred metres downstream.
She was winched from the rocks by the Queenstown rescue helicopter and reunited her with her friends about 2.45pm.
She was checked by St John paramedics but did not require treatment.
Sgt Hargreaves said he would not recommend the area for swimming because of the river’s strong current and eddies.
A friend of the woman told the Otago Daily Times he went with her and another woman to the reserve about 11am.
All Queenstown residents, they had gone to have a picnic and swim.
They were swimming in a spot where the current took them around in a circle and back to the riverbank, but somehow the woman got out of the current and was swept downriver, he said.
